Haze aka Eric Haze x Abstracts and Icons Gallery
A short video of the Eric Haze / New ABSTRACTS and ICONS / Opening Event
for more info and an extensive archives of past work, please visit :
About the Artist:
Born in New York City in 1961, Eric Haze has been a leader in the worlds of art, graphic and product design for over 30 years. In the 70’s, under the name “HAZE”, he established his own influential styles of graffiti, bombing the trains and the walls of NYC. During the 80’s, Haze became one of the first artists to help visually communicate Hip Hop culture to the world via his graphic and logo design. Haze then went on to establish his own eponymous brand in the 90’s, which remains one of the blueprints for modern streetwear as we now know it.
To this day, he continues to produce a variety of creative work in many mediums, including design collaborations with many of the worlds most respected brands, and has also recently returned to the fine art world, where he has been exhibiting a new body of more personal work. A true New York icon, Haze runs his art and design studio out of their new Brooklyn headquarters.
A few words from HAZE:
now that I’ve recovered from an absolutely blinding month and season preparing for last week’s exhibition,
I wanted to share some images and thoughts about the show from my perspective;
more by way of background and it’s development as opposed to objectifying my own work,
which I will leave to the words of others who have been moved to constructively reflect on it in links to follow…
and what I would like to say for now is :
when the idea of a serious career as an artist first dawned on the group of people I was connected to around 79-81,
the first and perhaps only playing field for us at that time was that of fine art and the gallery world,
along with the complex economics and politics that surrounded it.
At 19 years old, along with my contemporaries, I found myself in a front page graffiti article in the Village Voice,
and showing at P.S. 1 alongside Andy Warhol, Robert Mapplethorpe, Jean, Keith, and the prime of the downtown New York art scene.
After navigating that world for a few years and being in a few cool group shows,
I decided that somehow the world of graphic design was infinitely better suited for my skills and philosophy on a number of levels,
especially given my background and passion for letter forms and the written word.
fast forwarding to the new millennium :
in 2000 I was asked to join a group show at Agnes B. in New York City entitled ‘Neo-Graffiti’, alongside Lee, Futura, Doze, and Phase 2.
Though deep to design, production and managing my brand at the time,
I decided that if I was going to show along side some of the premier painters of my generation,
I couldn’t just walk in with some furniture and design installations,
and would have to actually roll up my sleeves and create a painting really worth exhibiting.
so I picked up some quality brushes, got familiar with mixing paint and pigments again,
and commissioned a few large canvasses to be produced…
that all worked out well ( see link ), and it got me back in touch with traditional paint and brushwork,
something I promised myself I would continue with seriously as time allowed…
I managed to knock out four more flag series paintings to show in the year to follow,
and even had ten more canvasses prepped before it was time to pack up my world on my expedition back to New York from Los Angeles.
After returning to New York and getting through construction of a new design studio,
reshaping the identity and presence of my brand,
plus totally reorganizing my life on a wholesale level,
I also felt a strong need to rediscover something much more personal within my art.
After years of graphic design, clothing and product design, marketing, sales and promotion, plus directing three stores in Tokyo for five years…
in an increasingly digital and blog driven world, I wanted rediscover the hand styles and organic approaches
that had originally informed so much of what it took to create art in the world I came up in before the computer age.
I was also energized by what had then become an invigorated art world again in New York and elsewhere,
inspired by the good work of many artists of both my generation and the ones to follow,
and also convinced that there was a fertile ground growing between the perceptions of graphic design and fine art,
some of which I might be uniquely qualified to explore too.
as I really got my head and time around it over the last three years,
between charcoal, ink, paint, paper and canvas,
it has been nothing short of a process of total rediscovery and revelation for me.
besides falling completely in love with paint and brushes again,
with and departing from the letter form and existing icons,
certain truths in line, space and balance have revealed themselves to me in ways that now bring me great joy producing.
I grew up being privileged to spend time watching artists like Keith, Jean and Lee actually create their works,
and though I always admired how confidently and fluidly they were able to paint,
somehow it was always more about controlling other mediums and fine tuning the results to me until recently.
over many years of signing posters, phones, cameras and anything anyone could get their hands on in Japan,
plus a few painting projects and store installations around the world,
I began to get much more back in touch with making things up naturally as I went along,
and part of the initial recent process has also been about challenging myself to more simply just let things happen,
with an absolute trust of line, motion and the beauty of imperfection.
this path and side of what I do is now something I will continue fully exploring for the rest of my life in one form or another.
so all that said :
‘New Abstracts and Icons’
represents what I consider a well distilled collection of what this work has been about for me throughout this chapter,
and I am pleased that it seems to have been well received and understood so far on many of the levels it was intended to.
I am attaching a few links below from valued friends and supporters who have also shared their positive perspectives on it,
as well as some straight studio pics my man Steven Schuster managed to produce by now,
plus a quick hand held video shot at the opening event by my right hand Carl, who always has a good eye…
which even catches a whiff of Niel Armstrong spinning the “New York, New York” Jay-Z jam of the moment, time coding it nicely too.
Thank you and much love to everyone who came out and represented on opening night,
and the show will be up for another two weeks until December 10th @ Level 2 / 812 Broadway, between 11th and 12th St.
( 12-6 PM tuesday – fridays, 1-7 PM weekends, and four more days after Art Basel for those who are Miami bound )
A limited addition of 25 signed and numbered posters from the show are also available now online at : http://www.interhaze.com/shop
plus, more new projects and shows are also scheduled for early next year,
including some exciting new products, brand and design collabo’s…so stay tuned :
and all the best to you and yours for the holidays.
Peace,
Eric / Haze
Short URL: http://puregraffiti.com/art/?p=3122
Posted by Fyer11
on 2:15 pm. Filed under Hip Hop x Graffiti, Urban Art Events, Videos Blog.
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